December 20, 2018

Sunrise Acupuncture PC v Global Liberty Ins. Co. of N.Y. (2018 NY Slip Op 51887(U))

Headnote

The relevant facts in this case were that the defendant-insurer, Global Liberty Insurance Company, attempted to invoke the primary jurisdiction of the Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) in two first-party no-fault actions nearly seven years after the issue was raised as an affirmative defense and during the trial. The main issue decided was whether the trial court properly denied the defendant's belated attempt to invoke the primary jurisdiction of the WCB. The holding of the case was that the trial court's decision to deny the defendant's attempt was affirmed, as the defendant's belated invocation of the primary jurisdiction of the WCB was seen as an attempt to further delay the litigation, and therefore was not allowed under these particular circumstances.

Reported in New York Official Reports at Sunrise Acupuncture PC v Global Liberty Ins. Co. of N.Y. (2018 NY Slip Op 51887(U))

Sunrise Acupuncture PC v Global Liberty Ins. Co. of N.Y. (2018 NY Slip Op 51887(U)) [*1]

Sunrise Acupuncture PC v Global Liberty Ins. Co. of N.Y.

2018 NY Slip Op 51887(U) [62 Misc 3d 129(A)]

Decided on December 20, 2018

Appellate Term, First Department

Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.

This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.

Decided on December 20, 2018

SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE TERM, FIRST DEPARTMENT
PRESENT: Ling-Cohan, J.P., Gonzalez, Cooper, JJ.
18-343/344

Sunrise Acupuncture PC a/a/o Luis Suero, Plaintiff-Respondent,
against
Global Liberty Insurance Company of New York, Defendant-Appellant.

Defendant appeals from two judgments of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Bronx County (Marian C. Doherty, J.), entered April 19, 2018, after a consolidated nonjury trial, in favor of plaintiff and awarding it damages in the principal amounts of $861.32 and $593.77, respectively.

Per Curiam.

Judgments (Marian C. Doherty, J.), entered April 19, 2018, affirmed, with one bill of $25 costs.

The trial court properly denied defendant-insurer’s belated attempt to invoke the primary jurisdiction of the Workers’ Compensation Board [WCB] in these consolidated first-party no-fault actions. Other than asserting the workers’ compensation statute as one of eighteen affirmative defenses in its respective May 2011 answers, defendant did not otherwise raise or pursue the workers’ compensation issue during the course of the litigation, and indeed, only raised the issue at trial, nearly seven years later. Under these particular circumstances, defendant “may not, at this belated juncture, invoke the primary jurisdiction of the WCB as a means of further delaying the litigation” (Sangare v Edwards, 91 AD3d 513, 515 [2012]; see Ovenseri v St. Barnabas Hosp., 94 AD3d 495 [2012]; Bastidas v Epic Realty, LLC, 58 AD3d 776, 777 [2009]).

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.

I concur I concur I concur

Decision Date: December 20, 2018